Conservatives and Taxes

Rick says:

After all, whether they support redistributive policies or not, religious conservatives pay their taxes, just like "wealthy liberals"; they just give away more on top of that.

Fair Point.  Except that, in the states where religious conservatives predominate, taxes are lower (as are government services).  In states were "wealthy liberals" live, taxes (and services) are higher.  Compare, for example, South Dakota (45th highest tax burden) or Alabama (46th) or Tennessee (47th) or Oklahoma (40th) with, say, New York (2nd) or Hawaii (3rd) or Rhode Island (4th).  So it's not clear to me at all, to quote Rick, that "religious conservatives" pay taxes "just like 'wealthy liberals.'"  As long as the increment that religious conservatives donate to charity does not exceed the difference in tax burden, then I believe my point stands.  Interestingly, nothing in the descriptions of the book I've seen on-line says anything about the absolute magnitude of the giving we're talking about.  It's all about the relative rate of giving between religious conservatives and secular liberals.  (As an aside, I've never seen any data suggesting that conservatives are more likely to evade taxes, but, if the Bush administration's policies with respect to IRS enforcement are any guide, there appears to be a constituency for tax evasion among wealthy Republicans.)